Development of an instrument to measure the quality of standardized/simulated patient verbal feedback

Standardized/simulated patients (SPs) are being asked to provide formative verbal feedback to medical students. There is a need to objectively measure the quality of this feedback. This paper describes the theoretical and empirical development of the Quality of Standardized Patient Feedback form (QSF), an instrument designed to measure the quality of standardized/simulated patient verbal feedback. The QSF consists of 7 categories derived from existing literature on feedback. Interrater and internal consistency reliabilities of QSF scores were calculated through two pilot studies. In the first, 2 standardized patient educators (SPEs) analyzed 14 videos of SP verbal feedback (weighted kappa = 0.73). In the second study, 14 SPs rated 3 videos (Intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.92. Internal reliability was 0.79 (Cronbach’s alpha). Twenty-one expert SPEs were asked to rate the QSF categories as to their importance in providing feedback to learners. SPEs agreed on the importance of five of the seven categories, but were split on the importance of two categories. We found theoretical and practical support for the QSF categories. The QSF is a useful instrument for evaluating the quality of SP verbal feedback.